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IN THIS COLUMN last week I said Canary Wharf, the Docklands property company, has a “highly valuable office estate with a tenant profile most investors would die for”.

That was wrong and I would like to apologise for having misled you.

What I should have written is that George Iacobescu, Canary Wharf chief executive, has been enticing tenants into his company’s properties by granting them options to return unwanted office space straight back to the company.

I can write this now because it was only on Wednesday that Iacobescu ’fessed up, knocking for six his claim that Canary Wharf should be treated differently from other property groups because it has such strong arrangements with its tenants.

In basic terms, Iacobescu was forced to admit that the property developer is facing a far larger than expected level of vacancies at its 85-acre site. The put-options granted to some tenants mean that